NEWS & EVENTS

The success of Capote, the movie, has brought many people to Capote, the book, which tells the rest of Truman Capote’s remarkable story. Gerald Clarke has added an afterword to a new paperback edition in the United States, and new paperback editions have also been published in Britain, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Brazil, Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries of South America. Capote has now been translated into eleven languages, including new Polish and Hungarian editions which will be published in the fall of 2006.

New editions have brought new reviews, including this one from David Smith in the Observer (Feb. 5, 2006), one of Britain’s leading newspapers.

“It is no exaggeration to say that this masterful and compassionate biography of Capote, which was first published in 1988, belongs to the same genre [as In Cold Blood]: the true story that is every bit as gripping, emotionally engaging and privy to a central consciousness as an immaculately crafted novel.”

“Clarke’s retelling of how the gay socialite—whose eccentricities made him an oddball even in Manhattan—turned up in Holcomb, where he seemed as incon-gruous as a Martian, and then became involved with the murderers until their execution, is so seize-you-by-the-throat that it has now been filmed, with Philip Seymour Hoffman playing the writer...”

“Despite a childhood friendship with Harper Lee, Capote’s early years were barely less miserable, traumatized by rejection from both his parents, whose meeting in the first chapter is told with a novelist’s startling vitality. But for laugh-out-loud vignettes and reminiscences of Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando, and the late President John F. Kennedy, as well as Capote’s celebrated Black and White Ball, held in 1966, this is as good as it gets.”

LOS ANGELES — Capote author Gerald Clarke and screenwriter Dan Futterman were honored at the 18th annual USC Scripter Award ceremony on Saturday, February 11. The sold-out event, sponsored by the Friends of the USC Libraries, drew a crowd of 400 and benefited the Doheny Library Preservation Fund. On hand to fete the writers were a number of literary luminaries and Hollywood personalities. Capote director Bennett Miller presented the screenwriter award to Futterman, while Scripter Selection Committee Chair, Tom Schulman (Academy Award winner for 1989's Dead Poet's Society), presented the author award to Clarke. Emcee Henry Winkler introduced the first clip from the award-winning film. Screenwriter, novelist and educator Howard A. Rodman highlighted the book-adaptation process and presented a clip from the award-winning film. Comedy legend Hal Kanter served as grand master of ceremonies. In accepting the Scripter Award in the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library, Clarke said, “I'm very honored to receive this award. When I was working on my second biography about Judy Garland, I spent many days in this library. One of the great repositories of movie history is right here in these walls.”

“A mystical bond unites all writers. To quote Henry James: 'We work in the dark, we do what we can . . . the rest is the madness of art,'” said Clarke. Accepting his Scripter, Futterman said: ”Winning this award is great because it gives me a chance to talk about Gerald Clarke. I'm honored to have worked with him and to call him a friend.” The University of Southern California's Scripter Award was created to recognize both the author and screenwriter behind the year's best film adaptation of a book while raising visibility and support for the USC Libraries. The black-tie dinner honoring the winning writers was held in the Doheny Memorial Library, one of USC's oldest buildings and a Los Angeles historical landmark. Proceeds from the event benefit the Doheny Preservation Fund. Past Scripter winners include the authors and screenwriters of Million Dollar Baby, The Hours, A Beautiful Mind, L.A. Confidential, The English Patient and Schindler's List.

Gerald Clarke will be in Hungary and the Czech Republic in October 2006 to research a new book—a novel about secrets within secrets and mankind’s oldest mystery.